In One Piece, as Hashirama Senju

[151] Fate's Little Prank

A large shadow was cast over them, but Hashirama didn't have the time to look up. His second pair of hands made hand signs and from the water below, a normal but large boat arose. It took more chakra to do it from water instead of ground, but he could manage.

Hashirama threw the girls into the boat with his vines, one by one, and then finally climbed onto it himself.

"Haah," he heaved out a sigh, falling on his back. "We survived." He said, finding himself at peace hearing the girls gargle and cough out water.

"Shira, y-your hands!" Tsunade yelled the first thing after coughing out all the water. She was sprawled on the floor, half planking as she looked at him in self-anger. "Fuck, why did this happen?!"

"Relax, I will figure something out. And I can just use four arms if they never actually heal, not that big of a deal," he looked at his sister. He chuckled in between breaths and looked at Marianne. "Instead, you should thank our savior instead. I have to say, that was a ray of hope I didn't think we had."

One by one the girls finished coughing and looked at the girl who saved them all.

Marianne looked a little embarrassed but took the compliments with a slow nod, also having finished puking out all the water. Then, slowly, she looked behind him. Her head raised as if looking at a tower.

"Uh, what is that?" she pointed with wide eyes.

Slowly, all of them shifted their attention to the thing that cast the shadow of a city over them. And to Hashirama's surprise, it really was a city. With the sun already down on this side of the world, wherever this was, the moon hung high.

The golden moonlight fell over the city, yet failed to paint it yellow. The evergreen city remained so, emerald and bright. Towering skyscrapers cast intricate shadows onto the tranquil sea, making the crew feel small. The water mirrored the city's splendor, its surface like liquid glass, sparkling with moonlit diamonds. The city's skyline was an architectural masterpiece, displaying windows that were illuminated as if people were living in them.

Weirdest of all, the city was embraced by a vast glass dome, a crystal barrier covering the entire place in a circle reflecting the moonlight, giving it an ethereal charm. Instead of earth as its surface, it floated on a black stone. In truth, it really looked like a crystal toy.

Who made this place? No, whoever it was, despite the odd design, the crew found themselves marveling at the seamless fusion of nature and modernity.

They were before the Emerald City.

"It's that place," Hashirama said. "There is no doubt about it. We are in the calm belt, if you turn your head around you'd notice. So this must be it, the... Emerald City."

Oh, what a prank fate had pulled. First, it threw them into the sea to drown, but once they overcame that, it rewarded them with their ultimate destination. The place they had been searching for months.

"That looks like," Nami held a monocle to her eyes. Where did she get that? She was pretty distracted by his sight, thanks to her wet clothes, clinging tightly to her skin. She was looking afar, at the black stone that was the base of the city. "A gate. There is a gate. It seems like an obvious choice, but should we go there?"

The Emerald City. Their destination for the past few months. One of the three legends of the world, along with One Piece and City of Gold. After almost getting deleted from the world by the God's Knights, they ended up right before this place. And the question was should they be going inside?

Obviously.

"Yeah," Hashirama let out a light sigh and moved the boat with his chakra. "I'd have liked to just fly over and land in the city, but it's blocked with glass. I don't think they'd take kindly to us breaking that dome, if we can even. Let's go take the gate."

He wasn't sure what would be inside, no one was. But they didn't care, goddammit, they needed a soft bed and a peaceful sleep. They needed a place to rest after this hazardous incident until the Clone-rama would return with their ship. It was an unexpected blessing that the place just happened to be their goal city.

....

Unfortunately, sleeping was the last thing any of them had to worry about.

Fate did pull a prank by taking them away from Garling and dropping them here, but it wasn't a positive one.

Entering that Emerald City was perhaps the worst mistake Hashirama ever made in the eighteen years of life in this world.

This place was hell.

|| Hashirama's Voyage Season 1, The End ||

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Author's Note: We aren't calling this volume like CG, but seasons. Don't forget to spare some stones here! Now that CG is done, starting Sunday I'll do goals (small ones) to get the chapter rates up as well as get HV back to rankings. Enjoy!

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